One Piece Revels in Kozuki Oden's Most Intense Battle

With One Piece on the precipice of the War of Wano Country, the franchise is taking the [...]

With One Piece on the precipice of the War of Wano Country, the franchise is taking the opportunity to take a step back and look into the past of the isolationist nation, specifically of the state's one time Daimyo, Oden. Taking readers into the powerful warrior's past, the most recent chapter of the manga that follows the Straw Hat Pirates shows us the dangerous time of Oden's life wherein he left the capitol city to carve out a name for himself in Wano. With enemies all around him, Oden encounters the most dangerous battle of his life in the slums of the city of Kuri.

Following his defeat of the giant board, the Mountain God, Oden was banished from the capitol city and went on his way to live his life. Hearing of another "monster", Ashura Doji, living in Kuri, Oden finds the idea of entering into this "den of thieves" a worthwhile experience and begins heading that way to start his journey. As he nears the borders of the city, both Ashura and his minions hear of his arrival and plan a warm "welcome" for him, swords at the ready.

Declaring his intentions to defeat the "monster" and his underlings, Oden fights all day and night in order to defeat the army against him. Claiming victory while sitting atop the literal hill of fallen enemies, Oden not only declares himself the "Daimyo" of Kuri, but offers a unique opportunity to those that fell beneath his sword. The denizens of Kuri that once fought the samurai were offered the chance to become Oden's "Samurai" with the powerful warrior stating that these "worthless samurai" need him as their king.

With this part of Oden's life revisited, we are once again brought into the present, where preparations continue for the upcoming battle that promises to be one of the biggest fights in One Piece's history. It's clear that both Oden and Kuri will have substantial roles to play in the war to come.

What did you think of Oden's journey into Kuri? Has Wano been your favorite arc of One Piece to date? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the Straw Hat Pirates!

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has since been collected into over 80 volumes, and has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best-selling manga series worldwide with over 430 million copies sold. The series still ranked number one in manga sales in 2018, which surprised fans of major new entries.

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